Four local volleyball teams came together to participate in the Brush Tournament on Saturday in what would be a competitive morning of matches.Brush welcomed Morgan County schools Wiggins and Weldon Valley, as well as Prairie, to play the round-robin tournament on the first weekend of the season.The tournament was the regular season debut for the No. 2 ranked Prairie Mustangs. Wiggins and Weldon Valley entered Saturday with a road win on the season, and Brush came in 1-1 with a win in Akron on Friday following a loss to Fort Morgan on Thursday.

Weldon ValleyThe Weldon Valley Warriors were the big winner in the Brush Tournament, winning all three games they played.But the team did not get off to the start they wanted in their first game with Brush. The Beetdiggers scored the first six points of the set and quickly built up a big lead on its way to a 25-14 win. In the second set, it was the Warriors that jumped ahead early but allowed Brush to tie the game late at 24. Weldon Valley would prevail 26-24 and force a third set.In the final set, the Warriors got an early lead and never looked back, securing the set 25-13 set win."Anytime you get down six or seven points in a match, you're uptight the rest of the match," head coach Jerry Spooner said. "When we were coming out and scoring early, I felt it relaxed us and we played well."Game two featured a conference showdown with Weldon Valley and Prairie. In both sets, the Warriors built up an early lead and kept it to the end, winning 25-20 in the first set and 25-17 in the second set.

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Entering their final game of the day against Wiggins, Weldon Valley was looking to be the only team in the tournament to win all three games. The team got off to a quick start and won the first set comfortably 25-17, but Wiggins would answer back with a 25-23 win in set two. The Warriors jumped on the Tigers in the third set early 14-3 and used the fast start to get a 25-15 set win.Spooner said after the tournament he was happy to have his team 4-0 on the first week of the season."I dreamed about this group starting 4-0, but I told myself to stay patient with the process," Spooner said. "If we continue to get better, I'll be very happy."

BrushThe Brush Beetdiggers found themselves in a couple of close matches on Saturday, starting with the 2-1 loss to Weldon Valley.In their second game, the Beetdiggers looked strong early against Wiggins by scoring 17 of the first 25 points in the set. Brush would go on to win 25-15. That momentum did not carry over as Wiggins responded with a 25-18 win in set two. The team looked to be in danger falling behind early in the third set, but Brush quickly retook the lead and never looked back, winning set three 25-18.Prairie would get the win in the Beetdiggers' third game on Saturday 25-17, 25-20.Brush head coach Marta Tadolini was encouraged by her team's effort, especially at the start of the matches."I thought we came out ready from the start," Tadolini said. "When we are engaged and our heart and soul is in it, we play well."The Beetdiggers had a stretch of five games in three days, and Tadolini said having some extra time in the gym next week with just one game will allow the team to work on some things they saw from the first week."You never think you're really looking to get back to practice, but I am looking forward to that," Tadolini said. "We are identifying some areas we want to work on and continue to work on."

WigginsThe Wiggins Tigers would finish 1-2 on Saturday but felt they had a chance to get three wins in the tournament.Wiggins started off the tournament with a nice win over Prairie. The Tigers gained a 24-20 lead but Prairie scored four unanswered points to tie the match and force extra points. Following a timeout, Wiggins scored three of the next four points to win the first set 27-25.Another close set followed as both teams were tied at 15. At that point, Wiggins went on a 7-0 run and got out in front 22-15, capitalizing on some mistakes from the Mustangs. The Tigers would go on to win the set 25-20.Head coach Michelle Baker felt her team played well on Saturday, including some girls playing in different positions and substitutions they had not worked on practice so far. The difference from getting one win to possibly two or three she felt was the start in some sets the team had against Brush and Weldon Valley."We started off some of the sets real slow," Baker said. "We tried to get back in it and make it a game. We've just been struggling to get that quick start."With a 2-2 record so far, Baker feels good about where her team stands going into next week's home opener with Union Colony."We played some good competition here today, so I'm not at all upset about how it went," Baker said. "I'm really proud of the girls."

PrairieDue to the state fair, the Prairie Mustangs were without some of their key varsity players in the regular season opener on Saturday. As a result, head coach Jayce Tappy had to put some players in different positions than what they were used to.With a make-shift rotation being used, Tappy said he it would be too early to tell how good his team would be."I don't think this is a true representation of our full team since we were missing some girls and had to get our first game jitters out of the way," Tappy said.In the first two games with Wiggins and Weldon Valley, Prairie had to play most of the match trailing. At some points, the team was down by a good margin, but the way the team responded was a positive sign, according to Tappy."We had a huge problem not starting games how we wanted to," Tappy said. "I was happy to see them come together and play, especially when they were down."Prairie would end the tournament on a positive note with a 2-0 win over Brush, giving the team a 1-2 start to the season.

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